View Data Source Details

View the details of an existing data source to check on its status or download a CSV file of the existing current data it stores.

To view the Data Source:

Under the ​Manage Forms tab in the web portal, select ​Data Sources.

Select the desired data source from the list by clicking on its name. Information about the data source is viewable on the following page. Note: If the desired data source is not listed, confirm that you are in the desired FormSpace.

In the top left, view a summary of the data source details.

This section lists the number of forms referencing the source, and the partitions applied (details of these are shown on the bottom right of the page.)

The Last Update date/time is listed. Note that this is the last time the actual content of the data source changed, not the last time an admin made changes to the data source configuration, nor the last time a fetch was completed (in the case of dynamic data sources). If a fetch was made, but ProntoForms found no changes to the data, this date will not change.

In the bottom left, the column headers from the source data are listed.

Columns with a beside them are not used in any forms.

Columns with a beside them are used in a form/forms.

You can delete columns from this list by mousing over the column and selecting the Delete option. However, the column will be re-added the next time the source data is updated/the data is fetched if it is still in the source data.

Download the Data Source as Excel

If you prefer to use Excel to edit or manage your data sources, you can download the data source as an Excel file. This is recommended if you have special or accented characters in your data source.

Mouse over the dropdown beside the data source name.

Select "Download as Excel".

Open the XLSX file in Excel.

Edit or Upload/Fetch New Data

Data sources are edited by uploading new data files; they are not edited directly within the ProntoForms portal. For Manual Upload Data Sources, upload the new file to the data source within the ProntoForms portal. For dynamic data sources, the files are uploaded externally and usually configured with an automatic fetch schedule, although an administrator can manually "Fetch" from within the portal.

Merge Data Source

Merge allows you to repoint forms to a new data source without editing the forms. This is useful if you have multiple forms referencing different data sources that you have consolidated. You can also use the Merge function to move from one data connection type to another. For example, you could move to a Quickbooks Online data source instead of using manual data-entry.

Under the ​Manage Forms tab in the web portal, select ​Data Sources.

Select the data source to be merged. This should be the old data source, not the target.Note: If the desired data source is not listed, confirm that you are in the desired FormSpace.

Click on the down arrow next to the data source name. Select Merge.

Under Data Source to merge into, use the dropdown menu to select which data source you are merging the data into.

Under Keep the data from, select which data source's data columns will be used. Note: This will not copy over your data entries. It will only copy the data column headers (i.e., Customer Name, Address).

Click Merge. Note: The initial data source will be deleted. This cannot be undone.

Delete Data Source

Data Sources can be deleted from a FormSpace. However, delete can only be performed if there are no Forms currently utilizing the Data Source. Deleting a data source is permanent; the data cannot be recovered from the ProntoForms server.

Under the ​Manage Forms tab in the web portal, select ​Data Sources.

From the drop-down menu beside the data source name, select Delete. Note: If the desired data source is not listed, confirm that you are in the desired FormSpace.

A pop-up window will appear to confirm your action. Click OK to delete the Data Source.

Referencing a Data Source within Forms

In order for a form to use data from a data source, the data must be referenced in a dropdown, radiobutton, or multiselect question in the form.

Navigate to the desired form and open the Form Builder by clicking "Edit Form".

Navigate to/create the desired dropdown or radiobutton question.

Mouse over the question and select Edit Properties, then Dropdown/Radiobutton Properties.

Select the Data Source option, and select the name of your data source.

Select the Display Column. This is the column containing the data the mobile user should be able to chose from. Optionally pick a Data Column to collect data other than what is displayed to the user (this column must be contained within the same data source).